Alber Elbaz of Lanvin: The Eye, the Mirror, the Screen
In the StudioSeptember 30, 2014
From another in the video series on designers in their offices, Alber Elbaz, the creative director of Lanvin since 2001, explains the difference having an office makes in his working life and what he keeps in the closets in that Paris office. (The conversation has been edited and condensed.)
Q. How long have you been in this office?
A. I’ve been in this office for a year, and at Lanvin for 12 years. But in our last building, I gave my office to my assistant.
Q. Why did you decide to have an office now?
Well, when I started working with an architect on this building, I thought that I would take one window and one table. And all of a sudden it occurred to me, Why not? So I decided to have two tables and two windows and a little sofa, and only like this kind of dark, dark, dark brown, or dark gray, or dark black or light black — I don’t know, I didn’t define the color — walls, and it feels very good. I feel very loved in this office. The only thing I brought is that photograph that I found in Tel Aviv. It’s of an authentic Orthodox wedding.
Q. Why that picture?
Many years ago when I became the designer at Yves Saint Laurent, I called my mom and I told her. And she said, “Oh.” And I said, “Aren’t you happy?” And she said, “There is only one thing that will make me happy, and that is for you to get married.” So I bought this picture of the wedding and the bride, and the bride looks so miserable that every day I look at it when I come in and say, “Thank God I didn’t get married.”
Q. So what do you do in your office?
First of all, I put my bag down. I think it’s very important to have a place to start the day and a place to put your bag.
Q. Where do you put your bag?
Never on the floor, because I’m superstitious. I was told that if we put money on the floor we lose money. I like to spend money, but I don’t like to lose money. So I’m trying it on the little bench just here in the back.
Q. What else happens here?
I interview people here. I have my lunches here. I leave my team to have their moment, and I have my moment. I need that moment of isolation, because when we sit around I’m always expected to give all the answers, but I don’t always have all the answers.
This is also a place where I meet people from the company when they need to tell me that they are leaving, or ask for a raise. This is my home here. I start like at 9, 9:15 in the morning. And I leave at 10, 11 o’clock at night. Even though during the week I’m in this room maybe in the morning for only like five minutes, and lunch 15, and maybe the end of the day if I have someone to see, another 15.
Q. Where are you the rest of the time?
We have the two areas where we work: one in front of the mirror, and one area a dining table of Jeanne Lanvin. I saw that table in the boutique one day many years ago, and there were some ties on it, and I said, “Can I have this table?” I feel always that I work more in the kitchen than in the living room or in the showroom anyway, so I thought, How symbolic, I’m working on her kitchen table.
With the mirror, I look with my eyes and I look with the mirror, and the mirror most of the times tell me different things than my eyes. So, who do I listen to? Who do I trust? Then I look at the photos of the clothes on the body. Then the mirror is no longer needed, but again the screen tells me different stories. So I have my eye, the mirror and the screen. And I realize more and more that what looks good on the screen never feels good on the body.
Q. Where did you find your desk?
It’s another table that Jeanne Lanvin used to use, and we just lacquered it and repaired it, and I put a glass top to protect it because I always use colors and papers, and I eat here, so sometimes things spill all over.
Q. And do you work on the computer?
No. This is when they show me pictures. I don’t tweet, and I don’t Instagram, and I don’t have an email address, and I don’t drive. I bought a phone once because it looked so high-tech, but the only thing I do with it is the green button and the red button. I don’t know how to use the rest of it.
Q. Is that why you have a pile of paper next to the computer?
These are my cards. I write notes to people and things that I have to do and things I have done. Every day I start with my to-do list: who do I have to call, who do I have to speak with, what do I have to say, what do I have to check? I do that, and I cross it off through the day.
Q. Do you have a special pen or a pencil?
Markers usually. Markers, pencils, colors, whatever I find around, though I’m not one of those that needs to have a specific paper, specific pencil held at a specific angle. It’s not important.
When I start a collection, I always have a little book. It’s not anything fancy or anything specific or fetishistic. This is where I do all my writing and do all my sketches — sometimes at 3 in the morning when I cannot sleep anymore, worrying that this is not going to be a good show, and what will I do, and I don’t know what to do. I sketch and resketch.
Q. What’s in the closets?
Everything I don’t want to see: papers, chocolate — 100 percent cacao without any sugar — candles, maybe old sketches I’ll find here and there, photos, carpets, a yoga mattress. Once I thought, Wow, it would be great to have a yoga teacher that should come at 6 o’clock to 7. Well, she came one time and no more, but I have the mattress.
Q. Do you keep the books in the closets?
No. At the end of the season, three or four days before the show, I give the book as a present to someone who was important for me during the last month and a half. And I tell them, “This is, maybe, one of the most difficult presents I give, because it’s part of me, part of my life.” I have to do that in order to start all over again. I give it with a bit of a tear in my eye, but it’s not a tear that comes out, it’s a tear that stays in. And I always say, “If I need it back, I’ll come and ask for it.” And they say, “O.K., we’ll just keep it for you.” And they do. And then I start a new book.
浪凡的阿爾伯·艾爾巴茨，避開新科技
時尚報道2014年09月30日
浪凡創意總監阿爾伯·艾爾巴茨在他巴黎的辦公室里。
在設計師辦公室系列視頻的另一集里，阿爾伯·艾爾巴茨(Alber Elbaz)講述了擁有一間辦公室給他的工作生活帶來的變化，以及他巴黎辦公室的壁櫥里放的東西，他是從2001年起擔任浪凡(Lanvin)創意總監的（下面的對話經過編輯和濃縮）。
問：你在這間辦公室工作多久了？
答：我在這裡一年了，我在浪凡12年了。但是在我們的上一個辦公樓里，我把我的辦公室給了助手。
問：你為什麼現在決定擁有一間辦公室呢？
答：呃，我和一名建築師開始設計這座大樓時，本來只想要一個窗戶和一張桌子。我突然想，為什麼不要一間辦公室呢？所以我決定要兩張桌子、兩個窗戶和一張小沙發，就要這種深棕、或者深灰、深黑或者淺黑色的牆——我不知道，我當時沒有確定顏色——它感覺非常好。我在這間辦公室里能感受到愛。我只帶來了一樣東西——我在特拉維夫找到的那張照片。它是真正的東正教婚禮。
問：為什麼帶那張照片？
答：很多年前我成為伊夫·聖洛朗(Yves Saint Laurent)的設計師時，我打電話告訴媽媽這件事。她說：「哦。」我說，「你不高興嗎？」她說，「只有一件事會讓我高興，那就是你結婚。」所以我買下這張婚禮和新娘的照片，那位新娘看起來非常痛苦，每天我走進來看見它就心想：「上帝保佑，幸好我沒結婚。」
問：你在辦公室里做什麼？
答：首先，我把包放下。我覺得有個地方開始一天的工作，有個地方放包很重要。
問：你把包放哪兒？
答：從不放地上，因為我迷信。據說要是把錢放地上，就會破財。我喜歡花錢，但我不喜歡丟錢。所以我把它放在後面的小工作台上。
問：你在這裡還做什麼事？
答：我在這裡面試別人。我在這裡吃午飯。我離開團隊讓他們擁有私人時間，讓我也擁有私人時間。我需要那樣的獨處時光，因為我們在一起時，他們總是期待我給出所有的答案，但我並不總能回答所有的問題。
我還在這裡會見公司里的人，比如他們需要告訴我，他們要辭職或者要求加薪的時候。這裡是我的家。我早上9點或9點15分到這裡，晚上10點或11點離開。儘管也許我只是早上在這裡待五分鐘，午餐在這裡待15分鐘，也許在一天的結尾需要見什麼人時再待15分鐘。
問：其他時間你在哪裡？
答：我們有兩個工作區域：一個在鏡子前面，一個在珍妮·浪凡(Jeanne Lanvin)的餐桌邊。很多年前有一天我在精品店裡看到那張桌子，它上面放着一些領帶，我說：「可以把這張桌子給我嗎？」我一直覺得我在廚房工作的時間比在客廳或展廳多，所以我心想，這多有象徵意義啊，我在她的餐桌上工作。
我用眼睛看，也透過鏡子看，大部分時候，透過鏡子看到的跟用眼睛直接看到的不一樣。所以，我該聽誰的？我該信任誰？然後我再看衣服穿在模特身上的照片。然後似乎不再需要鏡子了，但我透過屏幕看到的又是不同的效果。所以，我用眼睛看，透過鏡子看，透過屏幕看。我越來越意識到在屏幕上看起來效果很好的衣服穿在身上永遠都不好看。
問：你的書桌是哪兒來的？
答：它也是珍妮·浪凡用過的餐桌，我們就給它塗上漆，修理了一下，我給它加了一層玻璃桌面來保護它，因為我總是使用顏料和紙張，而且我在這兒吃飯，所以有時東西會灑得哪兒都是。
問：你用電腦工作嗎？
答：不用。這是供他們給我看圖片時用的。我不發Tweet，不用Instagram，沒有電子郵箱，不開車。我買過一個手機，因為它看起來非常高科技，但我只用它接打電話，其他功能都不會用。
問：所以你的電腦旁邊有一堆紙？
答：這些是我的卡片。我給別人寫便條，寫我必須去做的事情和已經做完的事情。我每天從任務清單開始：必須給誰打電話，必須跟誰面談，必須說什麼，必須檢查什麼。我做完一件，就劃掉一件。
問：你有特殊的鋼筆或鉛筆嗎？
答：通常是記號筆。記號筆、鉛筆、彩筆，我隨手找到的任何東西，我不是那種需要特定紙張、特定鉛筆、以特定角度握筆的人。那不重要。
我開始一個系列時，總會拿一個小本子。它不是什麼高檔、特殊或迷信的東西。我就是在它上面寫字、畫草圖，有時是在凌晨3點我睡不着覺的時候，比如擔心這次時裝秀不夠好或者為不知道該做什麼而憂慮的時候。我畫了又畫。
問：壁櫥里有什麼？
答：所有我不想看到的東西：文件、巧克力（純可可豆做成的，不含糖）、燭台，可能還有我隨處找到的舊草圖，照片，地毯，一張瑜伽墊。有一次我想，哇，要是6點至7點能有個瑜伽教練來教我該多好啊。呃，她來過一次，然後再也沒來過，但我因此有了這個瑜伽墊。
問：你把那些書保存在櫥櫃里嗎？
答：不。每一季結束時，也就是在時裝秀之前三四天，我把那個本子作為禮物送給在過去一個半月里對我很重要的某個人。我告訴他們，「這也許是我最難送出的禮物，因為它是我的一部分，是我生命的一部分。」我必須這麼做，以便從頭重新開始。我送出去時，眼裡有一滴淚，但那滴淚不會掉下來，它就在眼睛裡。我總是說，「如果需要的話，我會來要走它。」他們說，「好的，我們幫你保存它。」他們幫我保存。然後我開始做一個新的本子。
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